“Hold on, I’m coming!”
Yu Yao responded into the walkie-talkie, then tossed it into her system backpack.
She said to Luo Mei, “There’s some trouble over there, I’m going to check it out.”
“I’m coming with you!” Luo Mei said without hesitation, carefully folding and putting away her unfinished chips.
Yu Yao teased her, “I’m going for the loot, why are you going?”
“For fun!”
“…”
Luo Mei snorted, hands on hips, eyebrows raised, voice full of a teasing threat.
“If you dare leave me behind, I’ll make a scene!”
“…”
Luo Mei was insistent. Yu Yao had no choice but to say, “Fine, we’ll go together.”
“That’s more like it!” Luo Mei grunted, then turned and opened the car door to get in.
She poked her head back out and asked, “Do you know where they are???”
“Yeah.”
“Awesome, sis!”
Ignoring Luo Mei’s antics, Yu Yao said, “I’ll inform Commander Fang.”
“OK.”
When Commander Fang heard Yu Yao was going to rescue people, he immediately decided to send a team along.
Yu Yao quickly refused, “No need, Commander Fang. There are still many survivors here who need protection. If you send some away, those here will get anxious.”
Commander Fang thought for a moment, sighed, and said, “Alright, thanks for your hard work, Comrade Yu Yao.”
“No problem.”
Commander Fang added, “We’ll look for a place to stay nearby. Contact me via walkie-talkie when you return.”
Yu Yao nodded, “Got it.”
“Be safe. We’ll wait here for you,” Commander Fang said, looking at Yu Yao seriously.
…
After bidding farewell to Commander Fang, Yu Yao and Luo Mei drove quickly toward where Ji Yan and the others were trapped.
It was none other than the Xinxin Mall, which Yu Yao and Luo Mei had been to before.
Xinxin Mall was not far from Jinjiang Garden, usually about a ten-minute drive.
But now, many roads were damaged from the earthquake.
Although zombies nearby had been attracted away by that so-called “treasure,” so they weren’t bothering them anymore.
Still, that short stretch took over twenty minutes to traverse.
As they neared Xinxin Mall, Yu Yao and Luo Mei frowned.
Even though Yu Yao had prior knowledge of the situation there, she was still shocked by the sheer number of zombie heads densely packed.
Luo Mei couldn’t help but complain, “Damn! What did they do to attract so many zombies?!”
Luo Mei was genuinely scared; outside the mall’s main entrance, nearly a thousand zombies crowded.
Among them were level-one mutated zombies.
Looking out, all one could see was a sea of black heads—a truly terrifying sight.
Yu Yao frowned and looked at the zombie crowd not far away.
“They must have been attracted by something. There are two of us alive here—normally, zombies wouldn’t ignore that.”
“Really strange!”
Luo Mei said that, then rolled down the car window to test if the zombies would really ignore them.
Sure enough, not a single zombie paid attention, which reassured her quite a bit.
Yu Yao said, “Since that’s the case, let’s just rush in?”
She was very curious now about what kind of treasure was inside the mall that caused such a commotion.
To be a bit greedy, she was also craving the experience that killing zombies would bring.
With some luck, they might even get some equipment or items.
“Alright! Let’s make it big!” Luo Mei said excitedly.
…
With that, the two grabbed their knives, got out of the car, and slowly approached the rear of the zombie crowd.
The zombies still didn’t seem to notice them and continued pushing toward the mall.
Yu Yao didn’t rush to attack but checked the mall’s map, confirming it was almost entirely filled with red light points.
She also observed where Ji Yan and the others were gathered.
She found them trapped in the kitchen of a restaurant on the third floor, and the situation looked dire.
After confirming everything, Yu Yao acted immediately, swiftly chopping off the head of the nearest zombie.
Blood splattered, yet no zombie reacted!
Yu Yao narrowed her eyes, her red lips pursed.
If that’s the case, then she wouldn’t hold back!
Yu Yao tossed Luo Mei the promised broad-blade knife.
She tightened her grip on her dual blades and began clearing out the nearby zombies.
Even level-one zombies were cut down as easily as slicing melons, with no resistance.
She gained a large amount of experience, plus a few crystal cores and some talismans.
But she didn’t examine them closely, instead exchanging in the system store for two pieces of equipment called “Flying Tiger Claws.”
They quickly cleared a path to the mall’s ground floor and prepared to climb up through a window to the third floor.
They soon identified the window to enter — right below the restaurant where Ji Yan and the others were trapped.
…
Yu Yao looked at the window there and picked up a broken brick to weigh it in her hand.
Then she used all her strength to smash the third-floor window.
The loud sound of breaking glass was accompanied by a sharp scream from a woman.
Yu Yao frowned and threw out her Flying Tiger Claw, thinking to herself: For the treasure, for the treasure!
And she made up her mind to keep as far away from this Zhao Han as possible in the future— the farther, the better!
Using the Flying Tiger Claw, she quickly climbed up to the third floor and jumped through the window into the restaurant’s main hall. The hall was crowded with zombies, and these zombies seemed to have a bit more awareness than those downstairs.
When Yu Yao jumped in through the window, several zombies hesitated in their movement toward the kitchen where Ye Zi’ang and the others were hiding.
To be safe, she first used her (Veil Stone) to conceal all her aura. Then, while Luo Mei was hacking away at zombies, she slowly moved to the store’s entrance.
Before the zombies reacted, they quickly dealt with those blocking the door and closed it.
Then Yu Yao swiftly used the Flying Tiger Claw’s chains to tightly bind the door handle.
After that, she and Luo Mei worked together to clear a path and pushed the counter in front of the door to block it.
Only after confirming that the zombies behind couldn’t easily get in did they start to clear out the zombies inside the store.
Low-level zombies had no vision and relied solely on smell and hearing. With her Veil Stone active, it was as if she had an invisibility ability, allowing her to slaughter zombies almost at will.
Luo Mei wielded her broad-blade sword with fierce momentum, and soon together with Yu Yao, they cleared the gradually recovering zombie horde.
Then, stepping over the corpses of zombies, they knocked on the kitchen door, which was about to be broken through by the zombie crowd.
Fortunately, the kitchen door was a thick iron door, or else they would have been eaten to the last shred long ago.
“Ye Zi’ang, Ji Yan, are you okay?” Yu Yao knocked and asked.
The kitchen door quickly opened, revealing a pale-faced Ji Yan, his clothes torn in many places and looking quite battered.
“Yu Yao? You really came!”
His voice was filled with conflicting emotions—happy that she had come, yet somewhat blaming her as well.
Yu Yao carefully examined him, and after confirming he had no serious injuries, she asked, “Are you okay? Can you walk?”
Ye Zi’ang, following close behind, anxiously said, “We’re fine, but Fang Lianjiao was bitten by a zombie. Her condition isn’t good now.”
Yu Yao frowned and entered the kitchen, looking at Fang Lianjiao, who was trembling and pale, held in Jiao Yang’s arms.
There was a deep and horrifying wound on her chest.
“What happened?” Yu Yao asked.
She casually asked, but was met with silence.
She looked up in confusion and saw everyone staring at Zhao Han.
Zhao Han, looking innocent and wronged, nervously waved her hands and said, “No, no, it’s not my fault. I was just too scared. I—I didn’t mean to!”
Luo Mei clicked her tongue, “She pushed her?”
Zhao Han screamed, “No! I didn’t do it on purpose!”
Jiao Yang looked at her with disgust, “Shut up! You’re really disgusting!”
After that, he told Yu Yao and Luo Mei the whole story of how Fang Lianjiao got injured.
While gathering supplies in Xinxin Mall, they were suddenly attacked by a large number of zombies.
Zhao Han was so scared she screamed continuously, attracting more zombies to attack her.
Just as a zombie was about to grab her, she pulled Fang Lianjiao over and pushed her toward the zombies.
As a result, Fang Lianjiao was bitten.
Ji Yan and Ye Zi’ang reacted quickly, rescued Fang Lianjiao, and fought their way back.
Finally, they retreated into the kitchen of a small hotpot restaurant.
If the kitchen door hadn’t been thick enough to hold off the zombies until Yu Yao arrived, they would have been wiped out there.